Aliases: Tin-head (derogatory nickname given to him by
Spider-Man) ; Death (name given on invite)

Base of Operations: The Fun House, Manhattan; prior to
this, unknown

First Appearance: Marvel Presents the Spider-Man Annual
1979 (Winter 1979, UK Annual, published by Marvel Comics International
Ltd in association with Grandreams )

Powers/Abilities: Seth used a variety of fun-house gadgets
redesigned to turn them into lethal death-traps: slot machines which spat
out sharpened coins at the speed of a bullet; a room of mirrors filled with
noxious gases and high pitched whistles, all meant to deaden the senses so
the victim would fall into a pit full of rotating knives; and robotic Jack-in-the
boxes armed with automatic weapons. He also wore an armoured suit, coated
with a slick substance so that Spider-Man's webbing could not stick to it,
and covered in sharp blades so that the hero could not hit the assassin without
cutting his own hand to ribbons. For personal offensive weaponry though,
he relied on a sniper's rifle, and later a pair of revolvers.

History: (Spider-Man Annual 1979 3/3) - Seth Youngblood,
reputed to be the best hit-man in the business, is hired by Don Moroni to
eliminate Spider-Man, since the vigilante had been making it impossible for
Moroni's men to carry out their criminal activities for several weeks. The
Don gave the killer three weeks to slay the wall-crawler; in return Youngblood
asked for a fee of one million dollars, as well as three men the Don's
organisation could afford to lose.

(Spider-Man Annual 1979 3/3 - BTS) - Seth Youngblood prepared
for his confrontation with his target, booby-tapping an amusement arcade,
and putting together an armour designed to counteract the superhero's powers.
With everything in place, he put into motion the next phase of his plan -
luring his victim into the firing line.

(Spider-Man Annual 1979 3/3) - Seth sent the three thugs
he had been loaned out to rob the Faber-Allan Security Office. As planned,
this drew the attention of Spider-Man. While the web-slinger was apprehending
them, Seth played sniper, firing at him. Not unexpectedly, his target's
spider-sense allowed him to dodge the bullets, and the hero swiftly moved
to deal with the shooter. Seth fled along a prepared route, luring his prey
after him to the killer arcade. Fleeing inside, Seth left an embossed invitation
taped to the door, addressed to Spider-Man.

Taking up the challenge, Spidey entered the building. He dodged
razor-sharp coins fired out of one-armed bandits; entered a hall of mirrors
full of senses-distorting devices and successfully negotiated the hidden
pit of spikes therein, and got past a room full of jack-in-the-boxes armed
with machine guns. Finally the hero entered a room where the walls and ceiling
were coated with a substance too slick for him to stick to, where he confronted
the man behind all these death traps.

Seth faced him wearing specially prepared armour, armed with
two revolvers. The hero, barely able to stand on the coated floor, clogged
up both guns with webbing. Seth threw them away, unperturbed, and when Spidey
tried to cover him with the adhesive too, it slide harmlessly off the armour.
Then the assassin strode forward, unaffected by the slippery floor that his
target was sliding around on. He struck at the hero, who barely managed to
dodge. Realising that the only thing in the room the webbing could stick
to was itself, Spider-Man swiftly made a lasso, which he looped over his
attacker. Though the armour was slippery, the knives served to hold the web
rope in place, while Spider-Man smashed Seth off the walls of the room until
he lost consciousness. Removing the hit man's helmet, Spidey greeted the
awakening killer with a raised fist. Realising that he was extremely vulnerable
without the armoured headpiece to keep the hero from striking him, Seth quickly
surrendered.

Comments: Created by ?? Sadly the U.K. annuals
don't include credits for writers, artists or anyone else for that matter.
Like most UK Annuals, it would have been released a few months before the
end of the year, in time to be bought for Christmas. Typically annuals which
had the year printed on their cover were actually released the year before,
so that children receiving them as presents on Christmas Day would not think
they were getting an out-of-date product. However Spider-Man annuals of the
late seventies / early eighties didn't carry a date on the cover, and the
date given in the copyright section of the indicia is now generally used
for the year distinguisher.

Seth appeared in the second text story (Fun-House of Fear) given
in the British Annual. As such, he remains on the fringe of the Marvel universe,
and much like characters from the various novels, his existence on Earth-616
is unconfirmed, unless and until he makes a definite appearance in another
story. However there is also nothing at all that rules out this story being
added to the Spider-Man canon either.

It's unclear if Youngblood normally uses either booby-traps
like those in the arcade, or an armoured suit; perhaps these are only employed
in this particular hit. Certainly the armour has been customised to counter
Spidey's powers. Given that Seth tried sniping at Spider-Man, and that when
he faced the hero one-on-one, he used normal revolvers, I'd speculate that
on normal jobs he didn't use fancy gadgets, and that the equipment and armour
were ways of trying to equalise things given the hero's superpowers. Maybe
he got the equipment from either Arcade or the Tinkerer.

Profile by Loki

CLARIFICATIONS: Seth Youngblood
has no known connections to and should not be confused with

An aging New York crime boss whose criminal activities were
severely curtailed by the wall-crawling superhero. He hired Seth Youngblood
to kill the interfering hero. What he did after Youngblood failed is
unknown.